"Lap dancing bars, featuring naked or nearly naked women, are licensed in the same way as a pub or coffee shop, giving locals little grounds for opposing the establishment of a club in their community. But the Conservatives will say that local authorities should be able to determine whether any plan for a new lap dancing club "is appropriate in a certain area"." – Telegraph

Cameron’s bike is stolen ahead of holiday in witch-cursed cottage

"The jinxed Tory leader was "stunned" when it vanished from outside his local Tesco in West London. Onlooker Gary Yankee, 38, said: "He must have been looking around for about five minutes as if he couldn’t believe it had gone. He just kept on saying… ‘But I locked it’."… Mr Cameron, 41, wife Samantha and children Ivan, Nancy and Arthur are
staying in a cottage which has been linked to FOUR deaths after it was
reputedly cursed by an angry white witch 400 years ago." – Mirror

By-election day

"Scottish Labour officials believe they will narrowly win today’s
Glasgow East byelection but with a dramatically reduced majority after
a fiercely-fought campaign by the Scottish National party." – Guardian

Boris says Crossrail won’t take cash from tube upgrade

"London mayor Boris Johnson warned yesterday that the £16bn Crossrail
line must not take priority over a £30bn upgrade of the capital’s tube
network, amid concerns over the level of public funding required to
cover both transport projects." – Guardian

Alan Johnson criticises "Chingford meets Notting Hill" lecturing

"The health secretary, Alan Johnson, last night called for a national
movement to combat obesity, arguing that it did not help the overweight
to be told their problems were all their own fault." – Guardian

Apprenticeship proposals

"Business welcomed a £1.4bn ($2.8bn) Tory plan on Wednesday to create
100,000 more apprenticeships and shake up further education, but warned
about the impact of the proposal to finance the initiative by diverting
funding from ­training… The
Tories asserted there was a correlation between the growth in “Neets” –
people not in education, employment or training – and social breakdown,
arguing people with a job were more likely to be able to hold down a
relationship." – FT

"Steve Hilton, the architect of the Tory revival and David Cameron’s right-hand
man, has quietly married his long-term girlfriend, Rachel Whetsone, after
their vicar talked them into it just a few days earlier." – Telegraph

Where are Labour’s attack dogs?

"David Cameron has had the freedom to roam around without any credible
Labour figure responding. Dig beneath the surface and the Conservatives
are vulnerable on several fronts, as their more astute MPs realise. For
some reason, Brown has chosen not to dig. Most cabinet reshuffles
change nothing. If Brown gets them right the changes could make a
difference for the better." – Steve Richards in the Independent

"Support is growing among ministers for curbs on the traditional right
of MPs to top up their £61,000-a-year salary with outside earnings
after it emerged that 66 per cent of Tory MPs, 37 per cent of Liberal
Democrats but only 19 per cent of Labour MPs have other jobs." – Independent

Obama is not The One, nor is he a Reagan for our times – Iain Martin in the Telegraph

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